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Cornell Tech On Path to Reach Net Zero at The Bloomberg Center

Campus to Use Photovoltaic
Arrays, Geothermal Ground Source Heat Pump, and More for Greatest Efficiency
and Lowest Energy Use

Building’s Design Ethos
and Energy Philosophy Inspired by Mike Bloomberg’s Models at Bloomberg LP
and at City Hall

NEW YORK – Cornell Tech today announced details of its plan
to achieve Net Zero energy efficiency for The Bloomberg Center – named in honor
of Emma and Georgina Bloomberg. Designed by the architecture firm Morphosis,
The Bloomberg Center is the first academic building on the Cornell Tech campus,
the first phase of which will open this September on Roosevelt Island.
Cornell’s aspiration is for the building to reach Net Zero and LEED Platinum
status, with all of the energy needed to power the building generated on
campus. The campus is employing multiple strategies including solar power,geothermal ground source heat pumps, an energy
efficient facade balancing the ratio between transparency and opaqueness to
maximize building insulation and decrease energy demand, and smart building
features monitoring lighting and plug load use. A solar array also tops The Bridge
building on campus, designed by WEISS/MANFREDI Architecture/Urbanism/Landscape,
providing critical additional renewable energy for The Bloomberg Center. As
part of the campus focus on sustainability and efficiency, the first
residential building on campus will be the world’s first high rise Passive
House building.

“Cornell Tech will have some of the most
environmentally-friendly and energy-efficient buildings in the world,” said Dan Huttenlocher, Dean of Cornell Tech.
“The Bloomberg Center is our main academic hub on campus and, inspired by the
Bloomberg model, we’re reinforcing our commitment to innovation and
sustainability by pushing the boundaries of current energy efficiency practices
and setting a new standard for building in New York.”

“We are thrilled to work with Cornell Tech on a design
reflecting their commitment to pioneering new standards in building
performance,” said Ung-Joo Scott Lee,
Principal Architect at Morphosis and Project Principal and Manager of The
Bloomberg Center. “The Bloomberg Center’s design makes groundbreaking
strides in sustainability while simultaneously fostering interdisciplinary
communication among students, faculty, administrators and visitors and
complementing and invigorating the surrounding Roosevelt Island community.”

The strategy to achieve a low energy building is through a
stepped approach prioritizing reduction in energy demand through load
reductions as well as maximizing passive and energy efficient design, and using
renewable energy to power the building systems. Strategies to achieve Net Zero
at The Bloomberg Center include:

An all-electric
building: No fossil fuel is used in the building.

Geothermal
wells: 80 closed-loop geothermal wells, each 400 feet deep, were drilled
below the main campus public open space. The electrically powered ground-source
heat pumps are used to heat and cool the building in conjunction with an active
chilled-beam system.

Solar power: An acre-sized photovoltaic array tops The Bloomberg Center and
neighboring The Bridge building, generating solar power. Instead of locating
remote solar panels off site, the designs of The Bloomberg Center and The
Bridge incorporate the panels as an integral building design feature,
converging engineering requirements and architecture. The array on The
Bloomberg Center provides building shading while harvesting solar power.

Smart building
technology: Smart building features, designed by Morphosis and engineering
firm Arup, links lighting control, occupancy sensors, security, and other
building controls to provide on-demand power and respond to user needs and
occupancy, contributing to reducing energy usage.

Green roof: A
low-maintenance green roof incorporates native plant species along the
southeast edge of the building to help cool the lower roof surface.

“The Bridge is designed to encourage the random interactions
and deep collaborations that solve problems, build partnerships and accelerate
new products to market. But it also serves another important mission:
contributing to one of the most sustainable campuses in the world. Designed by
Weiss/Manfredi, the building’s solar canopy creates a unique architectural
feature that is not just beautiful but functional. Marion Weiss and Michael
Manfredi have created a sustainable and efficient building that also has
incredible sweeping views of New York City for our tenants to enjoy,” said MaryAnne Gilmartin, President and CEO of
Forest City New York.

“Sustainability is typically achieved building by building.
Here at The Bloomberg Center and The Bridge, we’re taking a more collaborative
approach that includes several buildings to achieve a more comprehensive vision
of sustainability,” said Marion Weiss
and Michael Manfredi, designers of The Bridge.

The Bloomberg Center stands four stories and includes
160,000 square feet of academic space with a low and narrow profile that allows
for views across the island, while maximizing daylight. Open offices and an
open galleria extends through the length of the building, and enclaves for
impromptu meetings will encourage encounters, discussion, and collaboration.
The building incorporates a 40,000-gallon rainwater harvesting tank buried
under the campus lawn, providing for non-potable water use for building
toilets, building cooling tower as well as site irrigation. For added
resiliency, the project has been raised up to increase its resiliency and
protect against future flooding, with key mechanical equipment located on the
roof top. The building was named after a $100 million gift from Mike Bloomberg,
who was responsible for bringing Cornell Tech to New York City while serving as
the city’s 108th Mayor.

The Bloomberg Center will open in September at the Cornell
Tech campus on Roosevelt Island as part of phase one, which also includes:

The Bridge at Cornell Tech, a
first-of-its-kind building that will house an extraordinary mix of cutting-edge
companies working alongside groundbreaking Cornell academic teams: from recent
Cornell Tech graduates hustling to commercialize a new idea, to start-ups on
the verge of explosive growth, and established companies developing leading
edge technologies and products. Tech and investment firm Two Sigma was recently
announced as the inaugural tenant. The building will be topped with solar
panels to power The Bloomberg Center and it is on track to reach LEED Silver
certification with a comprehensive range of energy efficient systems, including
water efficient plumbing, efficient mechanical systems, automated lighting for
daylight harvesting, and high performance glass to minimize heat gain. The
building is developed by Forest City New York and designed by WEISS/MANFREDI
Architecture/Urbanism/Landscape.

The House, a
residential building on campus or students, faculty, and staff will be the
largest Passive House in the world. Passive House is considered the most
rigorous energy efficiency standard in the world. The building facade is
constructed of a prefabricated metal panel system that acts as a thermally
insulated blanket wrapping the building structure. The building is developed by
Hudson and Related Companies and designed by Handel Architects.

About Cornell Tech

Cornell Tech brings together faculty, business leaders, tech
entrepreneurs, and students in a catalytic environment to reinvent the way we
live in the digital age. Cornell Tech’s temporary campus has been up and
running at Google’s Chelsea building since 2013, with a growing world-class
faculty, and more than 200 masters and Ph.D. students who collaborate
extensively with tech-oriented companies and organizations and pursue their own
start-ups. Construction is underway on Cornell Tech’s campus on Roosevelt
Island, with a first phase due to open in September 2017. When fully completed,
the campus will include 2 million square feet of state-of-the-art buildings,
over 2 acres of open space, and will be home to more than 2,000 graduate
students and hundreds of faculty and staff.

About Morphosis

Founded in 1972, Morphosis is an interdisciplinary practice
involved in rigorous design and research that yields innovative, iconic
buildings and urban environments. The firm is committed to the practice of
architecture as a collaborative enterprise, with founder and Pritzker-prize
winning architect Thom Mayne serving as design director alongside principals
Arne Emerson, Ung-Joo Scott Lee, Brandon Welling, and Eui-Sung Yi, and more
than 60 professionals working in Los Angeles, New York, and Shenzhen. With
projects worldwide, the firm’s work ranges in scale from residential,
institutional, and civic buildings to large urban planning projects. Named
after the Greek term for 'to form or be in formation', Morphosis is a dynamic
and evolving practice that responds to the shifting and advancing social,
cultural, political and technological conditions of modern life.

About WEISS/MANFREDI

WEISS/MANFREDI Architecture/Landscape/Urbanism is a
multidisciplinary design practice based in New York City known for the dynamic
integration of architecture, art, infrastructure, and landscape design.
Competition-winning projects such as the Seattle Art Museum: Olympic Sculpture
Park, Barnard College’s Diana Center, the Women’s Memorial at the Arlington
National Cemetery, and the Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument Grounds
construct reciprocal relationships between city and nature, architecture, and
infrastructure. The firm’s distinct vision has been recognized with the
American Academy of Arts and Letters Award for Architecture, the AIA New York’s
Gold Medal, and the Architectural League of New York’s Emerging Voices Award.
Current projects include the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, India, a master plan
for Artis-Naples, a mixed-use building for MIT’s Kendall Square Initiative, and
the Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking at Yale University. Princeton
Architectural Press has published three monographs on the firm’s work entitled WEISS/MANFREDI: Surface/Subsurface, Site Specific, and Public Natures: Evolutionary Infrastructures.

About Forest City New York

Forest City New York, a wholly owned subsidiary of Forest City Realty Trust, Inc., is the owner and developer of The Bridge at Cornell Tech, and owns and operates over 30 properties in the New York metropolitan area, including The New York Times Building. Forest City Realty Trust, Inc. is an NYSE-listed national real estate company with $8.2 billion in consolidated assets. The Company is principally engaged in the ownership, development, management and acquisition of commercial and residential real estate throughout the United States, and is the developer of such projects as University Park at MIT, the Science + Technology Park at Johns Hopkins, and 5M in San Francisco. For more information, visit www.forestcity.net.